16 February 2012

After presenting the check to Dell Children's Medical Center in Austin, it was off to Houston for another presentation at Texas Children's Hospital.
We always have a wonderful presentation at Texas Children's with their Child Life Department staff members. Each time, we have the opportunity spend a couple of hours with their team, learning how Spirit Halloween's Houston customer donations benefit their department.
As usual, we received a warm welcome with a banner and balloons! After sitting down to a lunch with the employees, it was time to present them with the money that was raised by the Spirit customers. As I said before, all of it was raised in 60 DAYS!!!

This season, we presented a check for:120,010.00

That's right, I said:

Today's check wasn't the only surprise! In turn, Texas Children's presented us with this gorgeous bench, which was hand-painted by some of the pediatric patients.
As you can see, they dedicated it to Spirit Halloween with a beautiful Halloween design.
As if the bench wasn't enough, we found out it will have this plaque affixed to it as it sits inside the Child Life Department for all of the kids to enjoy.
We were in shock as it was unveiled. We love helping our customers raise money for children's hospitals. Many people do not know this, but our son was hospitalized for a little while when he was just 11 days old for multiple GI issues. He rapidly lost weight at birth and was not able to maintain food. We were passionate about fundraising prior to our son's birth, but the experience we had as new parents gave us a very different perspective.

Of course, none of this would be possible without our Spirit Halloween customers! Thank you again for your generous donations, especially during these tough economic times. All of you have made a vast difference in the lives of children who spend more time in a hospital bed than they do in their beds at home.